McGrath was irritated at being hit for three boundaries by Mullally, including one back over his head, and the fast bowler made his feelings known to the tail-ender..

England won by 12 runs and McGrath was later found guilty of using abusive language, contrary to section five of the International Cricket Council's code of conduct, and fined 30 per cent of his match fee - around 2,500 Australian dollars.

The code states: "Players and team officials shall not use crude or abusive language, known as sledging."

Mullally slogged 16 valuable runs

But match referee John Reid decided to suspend the punishment for four months, but McGrath will have to pay up if he is found guilty of any code of conduct offence during Australia's forthcoming tour to the West Indies.

McGrath attended the hearing with Australian captain Mark Taylor, team manager Steve Bernard and umpires Steve Bucknor and Darryl Harper.

"Glenn's a determined character who tries to get you out by saying a few words to you. He's a top bowler, but I don't think he'll be saying anything for a while now," said England paceman Darren Gough.

Mark Taylor: "Our best chance was to keep them out in the field but it backfired"

Australian skipper Mark Taylor chose to focus on his side's overall performance and accused their batsmen of becoming "lazy".

"Too many of our guys made starts and didn't come off. No-one made a big enough score," he said.

"It looked like it was coming back our way. The last hour was real nip and tuck but England came back.